Vietnam Launches Food Safety Management System with S.Korean Support
The Food Safety Agency, under the Vietnamese Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) held a ceremony in Hanoi on March 7 to announce the food safety management system in Vietnam under the ODA project "Strengthening and Establishing Food Safety Management System in Vietnam."
The project has completed a four-year implementation phase from 2020 to 2023. The system consists of five components, namely (i) an online food safety reporting system from the grassroots level to district level, provincial level, and centralized at the central level, (ii) a Safety Information Portal website for the public, (iii) the Vietnam Food Management System for officials, (iv) a system for managing information of testing laboratories, and (v) a mobile web system.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phong, head of the Food Safety Agency, said that his agency will have regulations for daily access to this system to receive information. He also requested that health departments and food safety management boards organize training sessions to implement the features of the system in a professional manner.
In 2023, Vietnam recorded 125 cases of food poisoning, affecting over 2,100 people and resulting in 28 fatalities.